Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Ebru: Scatter a few flowers only and fill the rest with combed waves
- Type
- Set in Ebru's manner (Write the letters afterwards, into space the pattern left open), and let Suminagashi's lettering (Place type clear of the flow and do not let it compete with the ground) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Ebru's material (Pigment dropped on thickened water, drawn with comb and stylus, lifted once); bring in exactly one thing from Suminagashi (Drop ink and surfactant alternately onto the water and disturb them with your breath).
- Colour
- Build on #e9ebe5, #63618b, #274d1a and admit one accent from #f8f0f5, #b2c8e0, #373835.
Where they fight
- Ebru and Suminagashi both belong to Decorated Paper, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Ebru and Suminagashi are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
- Ebru and Suminagashi stand roughly 300 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Ebru Scanning the pattern and tiling it removes the chance of the single sheet, which is what makes it work, and leaves printed wallpaper.
- Suminagashi Trying to control it completely produces a dead pattern. Decide in advance how much room chance is given.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Ebru (technique, 15th century–) and their accent from Suminagashi (technique, 12th century–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Ebru exists for: endpapers and bindings where every sheet must differ from the last, or using chance pattern as the ground beneath calligraphy. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Ebru - Flower forms on water (ebru çiçekleri) - Combed wave patterns - The chance of each single sheet - Pairing with calligraphy Composition: Scatter a few flowers only and fill the rest with combed waves. Type and lettering: Write the letters afterwards, into space the pattern left open. ## Accent comes from Suminagashi, used sparingly - Streamlines of disturbed concentric rings - Layers made by the density of the ink - A pattern different on every sheet - Edges that keep the tension of the water surface Let one material quality come from it: Drop ink and surfactant alternately onto the water and disturb them with your breath. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #e9ebe5, carry the structure in #63618b and #274d1a, and let a single accent come from #b2c8e0. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: calm, luxury, play, intimacy, technique. ## Where they fight - Ebru and Suminagashi both belong to Decorated Paper, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. - Ebru and Suminagashi are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show. - Ebru and Suminagashi stand roughly 300 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Ebru: Scanning the pattern and tiling it removes the chance of the single sheet, which is what makes it work, and leaves printed wallpaper. - Suminagashi: Trying to control it completely produces a dead pattern. Decide in advance how much room chance is given. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Ebru 15th century– / Technique / Decorated Paper
Turkish marbling: pigments floated on thickened water, drawn into flowers and swirls with comb and stylus, lifted onto paper. Grown from calligraphy's ground into an art of its own, inscribed by UNESCO.
- Suminagashi 12th century– / Technique / Decorated Paper
A technique in which concentric rings of ink dropped on the surface of water are disturbed by breath or brush and then lifted onto paper. The flow that appears on each sheet cannot be repeated, and from Heian period decorated papers to contemporary bookbinding it has continued as a method for inviting chance on purpose.
Share this composition:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=ebru+suminagashi